This bluff isn’t working

August 29, 2012

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's surprise announcement in July that Afghanistan is being viewed as a "major non-NATO ally" of the United States was a painfully obvious attempt to rectify one of President Barack Obama's most serious mistakes.

Early in his presidency, for reasons based in politics rather than military science, Obama announced all U.S. combat troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by 2014.

That emboldened Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists fighting to regain control of Afghanistan. If anything, it has put more, not fewer, U.S. troops in peril.

Clinton said the new declaration represents "a powerful commitment to Afghanistan's future. We are not even imagining abandoning Afghanistan."

But Islamic terrorists battling U.S. and other NATO troops will see that for what it is - a bluff. They will consider Obama's policies to date and, regardless of the president's intentions now, will only continue intensifying their attacks.